Latest articles
Check out the latest from Gather magazine.
Dandelions
The miraculous in the common by Jennifer Grant THE GROUNDSKEEPERS have just mowed the park. Walking across the meadow, I kick at thick, matted clumps of grass. Then I spy, a few feet ahead of me, a lone dandelion standing up straight. About six or seven inches tall,...
Clinging and letting go
by Lisa A. Smith I’VE BEEN A MOTHER since the week of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. I was on a work-related training trip out of state, my heart already full of emotion, when I first heard about the shooting. My husband and I had been trying to start a...
Rocking chair prayers
Sacred time at the back of the sanctuary by Kimberly Knowle-Zeller Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. —1 Thessalonians 5:16‑18 Excerpted from The Beauty of Motherhood:...
And why has this happened to me?
The visit of Mary to Elizabeth by Audrey Novak Riley MARY SET OUT AND WENT WITH HASTE to Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, she was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women! And why has this happened to me,...
Summer 2023 “Salvation now!” Bible study video supplement Session 1
This June, we travel overseas to join the Rev. Dr. Anna Madsen, author of the Summer 2023 “Salvation now” Gather Bible study. Dr. Madsen takes us on a walking tour of Regensburg, Germany, where she lived from 1999 to 2004, sharing various legends and sites of interest...
The hour is coming . . .
Jesus said it is now by Lindsay Hardman Freeman Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? John 4:11 SO SAYS THE SAMARITAN WOMAN—a skeptical, assertive, bright soul— who argues with Jesus as do few others in the Bible. Authentic...
Feet tell the story
by Jennifer M. Ginn A mom living, and dying, with purpose MY MOTHER WAS ALWAYS on the way somewhere, her heels clicking briskly across the church parking lot or her Daniel Green slippers clomping on hardwood floors toward the kitchen. She moved with purpose you could...
May 2023: Video Supplement to “Love in action: The art of intergenerational hospitality”
In writing to the Romans, Paul advised this early Christian community: “For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.” Yet when it...
Moms and miracles
by Elizabeth Hunter CAN YOU REMEMBER A TIME when a mom or another mother figure turned and gave you “the look”? That look may have communicated something like, I’m not worried about what you just said. And you are going to help me with this now. At the wedding at Cana...
Breathe on us
Jesus overcomes all barriers.. by Angela !Khabeb YOU ARE PROBABLY FAMILIAR with the story of “Doubting Thomas.” Thomas is a man on a journey of faith, known by a moniker that he did not really earn. Thomas is the person who basically tells the other disciples: “Let’s...
My body is not a prayer request.
Don’t conflate disability with suffering. by Amy Kenny I AM CERTAINLY NOT THE FIRST PERSON to think of God as disabled. Nancy Eiesland, who pioneered disability theology, imagined God in a sip-and puff wheelchair. After a friend declared that her disability would be...
Set free
God’s law connects us to the lives and needs of others. by Katie Hines-Shah IT WASN’T SO LONG AGO that they were slaves. It’s important to remember this, as we read about God’s gift of the Ten Commandments and the people who received them. For generations, the Hebrew...
Light in the darkness
by Lisa A. Smith WHEN I WAS A CHILD, I thought the Ten Commandments weren’t for me. I considered myself a responsible and rule-keeping kid, and these rules seemed so easy. Since I hadn’t murdered anyone, stolen anything, worshiped Babylonian gods or coveted anyone’s...
Winter 2023 “The Ten Commandments” Bible study video supplement Session 4
Guardrails for love of God and neighbor In this fourth and final session, we will consider sayings from Proverbs and other biblical wisdom related to minding our tongues, integrity in the marketplace, and practical ways to serve our neighbors.
Our holy longing
Making my peace with death and life By Elise Seyfried MANY YEARS AGO, on an elementary school field trip to a local nature center with my daughter Julie, I volunteered to put my hand under an electron microscope for observation by the class. What on earth was I...
Our liberator
by Catherine Malotky OH, GOD, IT WAS YOU WHO BROUGHT US OUT of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You are my source and my liberator. I need your law because being true to you is illusive and hard, a daily commitment, and a path I so easily reframe in my...
God’s gift list
A LIST IS A HUMBLE THING, more dull than not, the basic workhorse of our everyday plans and aspirations. Lists help us navigate everything from “to do’s” to groceries. Living on scraps of paper, tucked within purses and pockets, they earn their keep but aren’t the...
Winter 2023: “The Ten Commandments” Bible study video supplement Session 3
Sanctity of life and love In our third session, we will review some of the major murders of the Bible. We’ll also delve into the scriptural witness to the spirituality of sex and the covenant of marriage.